Saturday slump for ITV1
- Published: 30 June 2008 14:33
- Author: Jon Rogers
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- Last Updated: 01 July 2008 12:59
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ITV1's all-hours share of 10.2% on Saturday (28 June) was its second worst day ever, with new entertainment show Who Dares Sings! interesting just 3.7m viewers (18.8%) at 8pm.
Across the whole 24 hour period, the commercial network only managed a share just above the 10% mark, its lowest for any day since 9 July 2006. On that day it slumped to a share of just 9.1% across all hours.
Before 28 June, the channel's next worst performance had been 29 July 2006, when it managed a share of 11.5%.
This Saturday's share was down by 41.7% on ITV's average Saturday all-hours share this year of 17.5%.BBC1 fully capitalised with an all hours share of 26.8%.
Traditionally, Saturdays have been a strong day for ITV1 thanks to big entertainment formats such as The X Factor in its peaktime schedule.
But this Saturday's ITV1's peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) performance wasn't much better, with a share of 12.9%. Over the same period, BBC1 had a share of 27.9%.
ITV1's most popular programme of the day was its new entertainment show. Who Dares Sings!. Even so, it attracted just 3.7m (18.8%) at 8pm. The show, hosted by Ben Shephard and Denise Van Outen, was down by 39.5% compared to the channel's slot average so far this year of 6.1m (27.2%).
Before Who Dares Sings!, the channel started a fresh run of All New You've Been Framed!, with the half hour show at 7.30pm struggling on 2.9m (14.8%).A repeat showing of the 2004 film Wimbledon at 9pm also had a particularly tough time, serving up just 1.4m (7.7%) for nearly two hours.
ITV1's daytime performance wasn't much better. It wasn't until 3.10pm that the channel managed to attract more than a million viewers, when its film Loch Ness attracted 1.1m (11.1%).
BBC1 virtually dominated viewing throughout the day. It's extensive coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championship from 12.45pm drew 3.1m (30.5%). Later, the penultimate episode of the current Doctor Who series averaged a sizeable 7.4m (38.2%).
Casualty at 8.50pm attracted 5.5m (27.7%) for 50 minutes.
ITV uses a slightly different definition of all-hours from the Barb standard. The broadcaster takes all-hours to mean from 9.30am to 1am the next calendar day, as opposed to Barb's 6am to 6am definition.
Even using ITV's definition, the performance was still the channel's second worst ever, with its worst ever performance still falling on 9 July 2006.
An ITV spokesperson said: "So far this year ITV has performed consistently well. Its year to date share of viewing for individuals is 17.7%; adults 18.3%, ABC1 adults 15.8% and 16 -34s is 13.4% producing a viewing average in all time share of 17.81%.
"ITV's top five rated shows continue to deliver high volume and share of the audience. Indeed, ITV enjoyed its best year on year performance since 2001, maintaining its position as the most popular channel in peak time and broadcasting many of the most popular programmes anywhere on British television. This is just one day in the year."
